Set him up as a vendor, if you are in the US mark him as eligible for a 1099.
his invoice to you is your bill, in the US payments to 1099 contractors report in one block called non employee compensation when filing taxes so I use that name for the expense account. If you are not in the US I would just name it contractor expense. What he includes in the bill makes no difference, parts, labor etc it is all your one expense
Use a service item to invoice your customer, same amount as the bill or mark it up some.
Another option is, if you have QBO Plus, to turn on and use billable expenses.
In company settings turn on make expenses and items billable
check mark to track billable expenses and items as income
then in company settings>advanced>chart of accounts click the edit pencil and select the billable expense income account
Why intuit separated the two related settings is anyone's guess
When you enter a vendor bill/CC charge/etc, you will see a Billable check mark box, check that and select the customer name in the customer block. The next time you invoice your customer, the system will show billable expenses on the right side that you can click the add link to add the bill to the invoice. IF you do not want to add the bill to the invoice, leave the billable check mark box blank, the cost of the expense will still count against the customer
